Often, two pieces of telecommunication equipment are interconnected by one or more multi-conductor cables. To facilitate such interconnection, a connector is provided at each end of each cable for mating with a corresponding jack on each piece of equipment. One type of connector that is widely used within the telecommunication industry is the "ribbon" connector, which is comprised of a prismatically shaped, insulative block which carries two longitudinal rows of opposed, spaced-apart electrical contacts. Each contact has a mating portion at one end which is exposed through the block for mating with a complementary contact of the jack in the piece of equipment.
Opposite the mating portion of each contact is a terminating portion, which is exposed through a separate one of a plurality of recesses, each located along a separate one of the longitudinal sides of the connector block. The terminating portion of each contact is provided with at least one barb for piercing the insulation of a wire in the cable when the wire is rammed into the recess. Once the barb has completely pierced the insulation on the wire, an electrical connection is made between the wire and the contact.
Usually, attachment of each wire in the cable to each corresponding contact of a connector occurs at the facility where the cable is manufactured. At such facilities, a machine of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,472, issued on July 12, 1977, in the name of William S. Cover et al., may be employed to attach successive pairs of wires to successive pairs of contacts on the connector in a semi-automatic fashion. While the connector attachment apparatus disclosed in the Cover et al. '472 patent generally operates satisfactorily, the apparatus is nonetheless very bulky and mechanically complex. For these reasons, the Cover et al. apparatus is ill-suited for use in the field where there is often the need attach a connector to a cable, such as after a factory-installed connector is removed and the cable is then shortened.
Presently, field attachment of a ribbon connector to a cable is carried out manually. First, an operator clamps the connector in a jig and then aligns the proper wire adjacent with the first recess. The operator then rams the wire into the recess so the barb on the contact pierces the insulation surrounding the wire. The process of aligning the appropriate wire with each successsive recess on each side on the connector block is repeated until all the wires are attached to their corresponding contacts.
Manual attachment of the wires to their corresponding contact incurs several difficulties. First, the process is tedious, especially when the connector has a large number of contacts, as is often the case. Further alignment of each wire with the corresponding recess sometimes requires the operator to use both hands, making it difficult to then ram the wire into the recess.
Thus, there is a need for a simple device which can be used in the field for attaching successive pairs of wires in a cable to successive pairs of contacts of the connector in a semiautomatic fashion without the foregoing difficulties.